Day 3 with Don and Kay - great tour into the Mugello, then east to Diacetto.

Another day out with our guests, Don and Kay, good friends from Crested Butte.  I learned from last year to not be impatient to get started.  After all, they are on vacation and everyone lives to their own rhythms.  So, we were on the road at the crack of noon today.  We did have an excellent tour though, and the weather cooperated well.  We basically did a route that Kay suggested today, although it is a standard tour for me in this direction.  We climbed the main road to Fiesole, which I do not often do, then up to the Monteloro turn off.  Here we started the Monteloro descent, then turned off for a tiny road that Kay in particular likes over to the road that hooks up with the contour road through Santa Brigida, Fornello, Doccia, and the windmill before descending to Ruffina.  Great panini and cafe in Ruffina at one of my regular spots, then one of my favorite climbs to Diacetto.  Over to Pelago, then descending to Pontasieve then cranking back into Firenze.  Really nice tour of 76.6 kilometers in 3:53 to average a very civilized 19.7 kph with 1323 meters of climbing.  Tomorrow, Don and I will do the granfondo course, which is a little hard for Kay, but she graciously suggested we do it and she will have a girl's day with Emily.  Ciao a tutti.

Beautiful church at the main piazza in Fiesole.

Don and Kay at the main piazza in Fiesole.

The view on the contouring road between Fornello and Doccia.

Another beautiful road in Toscana.

Don and Kay climbing together around Doccia.

Kay almost at the top of the last climb.

Day 2 with Don and Kay - Bacheretto, Castra, Ginestra and home.

Second day out with our guests, Don and Kay from Crested Butte, where we used to live.  I asked what they would like to ride last night, and Don asked me for a suggestion, hopefully with something new.  I happily offered one of my new favorites, and we rode out through the Cascine to Via Pistoiese to Seano.  I had warned them it was a busy road, but everyone was fine with it.  My weakest point cycling is my power on flat roads, and I have learned to enjoy it more, so with practice, I will get stronger there.  After Seano, the fun begins.  We rode new roads for Don and Kay through Bacheretto then back on the regular road to Pinone.  Water, cafe, and some really excellent fritelle de riso.  Next is the super fun descent through Castra to Limite, then the flat, main road to Montelupo, then Ginestra.  More water in Ginestra, then up through Carchieri and Inno to Vigliano, where we turned off to go over through Santa Maria a Marciaolla to the descent to Scandicci.  The first time I rode this was with Don and Kay while visiting here and we were exploring together.

Super fun day, and a stop at B-Ice, a great gelateria on the way home.  I offered up riding through the Centro, which they wanted to do, so a little craziness at the end of the ride.  Perfect weather, with a high around 70F and mostly sunny.  My first day with shorts and short sleeved jersey, although I did have arm warmers for the start and descents. Sweet day!  79.5 kilometers in 3:56 to average 20.5 kph with 996 meters of climbing.

Don and Kay in front of the old Medici summer villa in Poggio a Caiano.

Just another beautiful road in Toscano.

Don climbing on the way to Inno.

Kay climbing through the town of Cherciacheri.

Bike building, getting guests started, and a family tour in the Cascine.

Interesting and busy day yesterday.  We have visitors for a few weeks, and yesterday was their first day here.  Late sleep, giving them both a solid 14 hours for the night had us getting started around 10:30.  The cafe, bike building, as they bring really cool Ritchey Break-a-ways.  We had an interesting time when Don broke a bolt tightening it, and had an hour and a half of figuring out how to get it out and replaced.  It was right at the time that things close for lunch here, so we did some good, creative engineering to get it done.  By the time we were ready to roll, I had received a call to see if I could take a family out from the shop at 4:45, and I said yes, so our time riding together was limited.  They know the roads pretty well around here, so we went a direction they knew but did one of my favorite wrinkles climbing up to Vacciano.

I returned to the shop to meet the family, a nice Mexican family with a Father and 5 children, aging from 12 to 20.  All was good, but one of the girls, around 15 years old, had basically only ridden a bike once in her life, around 8 years ago.  So, getting her on the bike and from the shop in the city center to the Cascine was difficult.  It was a challenging but very reasonable tour, because she simply had a hard time being on the bike for more than a minute or so.  Bottom line is that other than chasing down the kids who wanted to go fast and keeping the group together and safe, everyone was very nice, agreeable, and did their best to have a good time.  I told Carla, the 15 year old, that I was impressed that she stayed with it, kept a good attitude, and persevered to have a good time.  It was impressive that she hung in there.  It is not easy getting a group out of the city center when they are good cyclists.

Overall, 45.4 kilometers in 2:50 with 307 meters of climbing.  More today with Don and Kay!

Kay looking at the flowers and the views beyond at Piazzale Michaelangelo.

Awesome tulips at Piazzale Michaelangelo.

Don and Kay climbing together toward Vacciano, right before I turned around.

One post, two rides and spring has returned!

Yesterday, up very early, before 5am, so I could stretch and eat before meeting a client for a ride at 6:30, which is barely light enough for riding.  It was pretty cold, around 38 F, so some of the winter gear was back out for me.  Warren, my client, came down and was surprised by the temperatures and returned to get riding tights.  He was very prepared, and as we rode I realized he does this quite often when traveling, although he said this was the first time he had hired a guide.  He normally finds rides through internet channels and can navigate his way around.  Florence is pretty hard to navigate unless you know where you are going, so he had me for the day, which was only for 3 hours, as he needed to be back by 9:15 at the latest.  He was one of the strongest clients I have ever guided.  Not as strong as former pros, but the former pros I have taken out always throttle back to my speed without a problem.  Warren was basically into going as fast as possible the whole time, which I was just barely able to accommodate.  I was able to put 50 meters on him on the hardest climbs, but that was it.  He was a very interesting guy, fun to ride with, and it is good for me to be with clients who push me, although it rarely happens.  We rode in the Mugello hills close to town, as I had no idea of his riding level ahead of time and knew he had a time constraint.  He wanted to be back around 9am, and I am proud to say I had him back at his hotel at 9:02, which is harder than one would think with something like cycling.  Fun, hard, fast early morning ride with lots of climbing.  Thanks for the business, Warren.  48.7 kilometers in 2:19 to average 21.0 kph with 958 meters of climbing.

Today, Don and Kay, from Crested Butte, where we used to live arrived.  Their flight was scheduled to come in around 1pm, and Emily went to meet them at the airport.  I stayed home, as there would not be room for the two big suitcases, two ritchey break a way bicycle suitcases and four people in most any cab.  I did manage to sneak in a quick ride, and had time to take a couple of pictures.  Yesterday, no stops for anything like photos.  I did one of my favorite close in rides and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was still a little cool, but warmed up as I rode.  By the time I returned, it really felt like spring was back with the temperatures approaching 60F.  Got a message from one of the people I work for and quickly went to his office after my return for payment for a few tours.  Back in time for a shower and something to eat before Don and Kay arrived with Emily.  They are out getting groceries now, which gives me the time to finish this up.  For a while I will be posting our rides together, so you will be seeing them in the pictures soon.  Today was 27.1 kilometers in 1:18 to average 20.9 kph with 472 meters of climbing.  Ciao a tutti!

Spring is back!  Tree in bloom behind a nice gate structure.

I love this beautiful road between Pian de San Bartolo and Cercina.

To the Sea (Viareggio) from Florence - great team ride.

I had a very nice team tour this morning, riding to the sea in Viareggio.  I had done team rides to Cecina, at the sea a couple of times, but had never ridden this route before.  This is a very nice route and significantly easier than the Cecina route through Volterra.  Basically, we worked our way on relatively flat terrain down the Arno river valley / basin to the sea.  A couple of good climbs in there, so it kept us on our toes.  A couple of nice stops for cafe / pastries / panini.  One after Ceretto Guidi and the other after Lucca.  Both were needed by all.  Pretty nice weather, but a little cool.  Still, I removed layers after the first cafe stop.  We had a nice and good sized group of 9 for the whole ride, which is more than the usual for the seaside tours.  I think I am the only one of the 9 who has been with the team for more than 2 years, so things definitely change with time.  It is always fun to do an event like this with a group, and Italians seem to be just super friendly and happy to be riding, even when the ride whips them.  So, a great, fun ride for me.  117.8 kilometers in 4:24 to average 26.7 kph with 634 meters climbed.

 Pasquetta (little Easter) dinner tonight at Kate and Nicco's, so the busyness and celebration continues.  Pasquetta is a big holiday here, although I certainly had never heard of it in the US.  I am not religious, though, so that may have something to do with it.  Super early client ride tomorrow morning then guests arrive on Wednesday.  Ciao a tutti!

Our first cafe / bar stop after Ceretto Guidi.

Almost everyone got in this view at the top of the last climb

between Lucca and Viareggio.

The gang from the team (except me, taking the photo) at the beach in Viareggio.

A beautiful beach view at the end (almost) of the days ride

in Viareggio.  Nice but cool early April day.

More crazy days with a good training ride in there.

More relatively crazy days, but that may be the new normal for a while.  Long tour with the team tomorrow, then a super early client ride on Tuesday, and guests coming on Wednesday for a few weeks, with the middle week spent elsewhere.  Today, it dried up after rain almost all day and night yesterday.  I had to return Kate's car, that we used last night, so I was not out riding until 1pm or so.  Actually, all in the plan, as I knew the rain was predicted to stop in the early morning hours, and I wanted to let it dry.  Also, I had time to do a bike lube / cleaning, which I should do weekly, but have been letting it go almost 2 weeks.  Good to go now!

I did the ride I planned, although at times, in particular when there were very light showers with lots of wind, I thought I might abbreviate the ride.  But no - I hung in there, which is what I need to do if it really is training.  The Granfondo Firenze is in two weeks, and actually, I am feeling pretty ready.  Today was a climbing day, and I have a route that challenges me pretty good, with 1513 meters on climbing and descending in 55 kilometers.  So, that works out to be an average of around 6% climbing for 1/2 the ride and -6% descending.  Anyway, a good workout and really quite a fun ride.  No riding yesterday, as it really started to pour around 12:00 and I did have a date to see Cinderella with my wife, daughter, friends, and all their kids.  Total group size of 22 with 15 under the age of 7.  Actually a real fun way to see a movie like that, which I thought was simply amazing.  They really seem to be very good at making enjoyable movies these days.

55.0 kilometers in 2:54 to average 19.0 kph with 1513 meters climbed.

I just love this view from Montesenario.  Cloudy, cool, with very slight showers, but still a fun and good ride to get up there.  Always good to get to the top.

Looking toward the sanctuary at the end of the road.

It has been blocked off lately, but the side of the sanctuary toward

the Mugello is now open for viewing.  

A few crazy days and a couple of rides.

A few crazy days in a row for me.  Wednesday, a friend here got married in the morning in a civil ceremony in the Palazzo Vecchio.  Beautiful room and fun to be a part of the couple's happiness.  Immediately afterward, we got ourselves home, then Kate picked us up to go up to Villa La Pietra, where NYU has their program in Firenze.  Kate put together an easter egg hunt for the third year in a row to benefit a great organization, Friends of Florence, which funds art restoration.  The Villa is an awesome place and it was super for the event.  A couple of pictures are included below which show what it was like.  After the event, we helped Kate clean up, then took a bus back down into town, for the party for the morning wedding.  It was at a place called the Oblate, and was really quite nice, but quite simple.  Fun day.

Then the bad part.  We returned home and I started to get something to eat and Emily said, "someone was in the apartment while we were gone".  It turns out we were robbed of mostly jewelry of Emily's and some watches.  We only brought things over that had sentimental value, so aside from the monetary loss, we felt pretty bad about loosing old family pieces.  I had a pocket watch from my great, great grandfather, which was over 150 years old, and was the only thing of mine they took.  Emily had a solid gold Rolex of her mother's, along with another Rolex of her own taken.  The worst for Emily were her mother's old charm bracelet and Emily's charm bracelet from her childhood.  It actually did hurt, even though we both know they are only things, and we are fine, and basically, they were not things we even used.  Police here until past midnight, but no useable fingerprints, and many discussions with a neighbor downstairs who was also robbed during the day.  It made us feel sad.

Yesterday, I did a long ride with a few friends from the team, previewing the mediofondo course for the upcoming Granfondo Firenze.  Great ride, and we all pushed pretty hard, which was fun.  Today, my first meet and greet of the year to Impruneta and back.  Add in a number of calls from the shop to see if I could do other tours in the process of being put together and you get the idea.  At least for me, at this stage of my life it passes for pretty busy and crazy.  Around 150 k for the two rides,  but I don't have all the other stats handy.  Out for dinner tonight with friends visiting from the US, two hours of babysitting yesterday after my ride, La Traviata Opera last night, and I guess it really is a little nuts.  Got to enjoy things as they happen and be present.  Ciao.

Here are a couple of views of the Easter Egg hunt.  What a location

and event.  Simply stunning.

Massimo, Filippo, and Leif taking a rest after most of the last 

climb of the day is complete.  Beautiful day and great ride.

I used the client's phone for pictures of them today, but at a stop

I got this picture of a beautiful day in the Tuscan countryside.